The Sound of ABBA

With their mix of melody, beat and crystal-clear vocals this effervescent Swedish quartet became the world's hottest-selling rock group

- BY Roy Ferguson

LIKE ANY HIGH-DECIBEL rock group, they come on with flashing lights, booming sound, whipping hair and glitter.

For a few tumultuous moments, it seems the solar wind offstage will blow the audience out of their seats. Then a guitarist thrums a couple of soft chords and a blonde in tight-fitting white overalls steps up to the microphone and uncoils a melodic line that soars like a benediction.

The hushed audience watches with a single eye, breathes with a single breath. Gradually, they join in, and the hall becomes a great echo chamber of song.

In just four years, ABBA, the effervescent Swedish group of two young men and two women, has become the honest act in popular music. At an Oslo performance in January 1977, touts easily sold tickets at several hundred Norwegian crowns apiece. When the group performed in London's Albert Hall a week later, the box office was flooded with 50,000 orders for the 11,212 available seats. In Australia, crowds queued for two days for an ABBA concert at Sydney's Showgrounds.

The sheer breadth of their appeal astounds the record industry. ABBA's audiences include all age groups, and they have topped the pop music charts in most countries—including Hungary, Malaysia, Turkey and Taiwan. Their 'Dancing Queen' and 'Knowing Me, Knowing You' were both number one hits on the pop charts, and their Best of ABBA album joined select group of 'gold discs' that have chalked up crores in sales.

Since 1973, the world bought 50 million ABBA singles and 30 million albums worth some ₹105 crores*. The Swedes have now passed even The Beatles in sales.

Their names are Agnetha, Björn, Benny, and Anni-Frid—hence ABBA—and they look just as fresh, relaxed, buoyant as they sound. No snarls, no whines, no aggressively sexual pelvic gyrations. They come on straight, in a mixture of assurance and good-natured self-kidding.

THE MUSIC